Brian Gongol
Forget global warming: Worry about energy as a national-security issue
Precisely as predicted here in November, the fight between Russia and Ukraine over natural gas has boiled over into a situation that now has the rest of Europe in its grasp, right in the dead of winter. You simply cannot argue, debate, or negotiate when temperatures are below freezing and your counterpart has the natural gas you need to heat homes. Sure, the price of oil has plummeted lately -- but if that in turn makes the United States and other countries complacent about energy security, then it's going to come back to haunt us. As, most certainly, will our failure to make science and technology fun and interesting for kids. It's not a complete failure -- "Mythbusters", for instance, is doing great work popularizing science -- but they're still on cable, and pseudo-science crap like "Fringe" is on network television. Answering tough questions will require educated people.
Inventor of the Hawaiian shirt dies
New York Times adds a front-page ad
And while some news purists lament the new advertising, they may forget that old newspapers had all kinds of ads on the front page. And, to take the argument a step further, it should be noted that American newspapers got their start mainly as shipping manifests -- a purely commercial endeavor. Ben Franklin's "Pennsylvania Gazette" is a good example. Of course, the issue of whether a newspaper carries ads on the front page is only a red herring anyway -- how the newspaper business adapts to the 21st Century is a much bigger and more complex issue than the placement of a single ad.
Another reason to bid 2008 good riddance
January 2009 update to the EconDirectory
Well more than 200 sites dedicated to business and economics commentary and analysis, ranked by visitor traffic. And, given current events, not a bad place to start for thoughts on what to do.
